google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Tuesday, December 20, 2016 Jacob Stulberg

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Dec 20, 2016

Tuesday, December 20, 2016 Jacob Stulberg

Theme: It ain't over till it's over - The sharing of the same word by the four longest entries.

17A. Began without hesitation: DOVE RIGHT IN

27A. Was heedless behind the wheel: DROVE RECKLESSLY

43A. Mentioned earlier: ABOVE REFERENCED

57A. Unseemly disclosure of personal details ... as seen in 17-, 27- and 43-Across?: OVERSHARING

Argyle here. I'm afraid I tried to overthink this puzzle. Just the word OVER repeated and somewhat placed over each other. If you see more, please share.

Across:

1. Prepare for a bodybuilding competition: OIL UP. If you missed seeing LATS yesterday, I'll give you oiled-up lats today.


6. Online discussion venue: FORUM

11. Freon or neon: GAS

14. Capital of Bangladesh: DHAKAMore.


15. Maureen known as Hollywood's "Queen of Technicolor": O'HARA. Nice Bio.


16. LP's 33 1/3: RPM. or RsPM, if you care.

19. Copy: APE

20. Place for a massage: SPA

21. Texas A&M athlete: AGGIE. Formerly named The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (1871–1963), hence the Aggies.

22. Disney's Little Mermaid: ARIEL

24. Take from the top: REDO

26. Without a musical key: ATONAL

32. Seal-hunting swimmers: ORCAs

33. Actor Ving of "Pulp Fiction": RHAMES. Gangster Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames)


34. Scolding sound: {TSK!}

35. Showers or drizzles: RAINS

36. Small amount: DAB

39. Irish playwright Sean: O'CASEY."It's my rule never to lose me temper till it would be detrimental to keep it."


41. Low card: DEUCE and 37D. Card that may be high or low: ACE

47. Unruffled: SERENE

48. Run __: go wild: AMOK

49. Careful types take them: PAINS

50. Bring about: CAUSE

53. Showy accessory: BOA

56. Previous to, to Dickinson: ERE. Emily Dickinson, poet.

60. Inmate: CON

61. Amusement park thrills: RIDES

62. Nick of "Cape Fear": NOLTE. Cape Fear, the psychological thriller film from 1962 was remade in 1991 with Nick Nolte as Sam Bowden, the Gregory Peck role.

63. Explosive letters: TNT

64. Makeup mishap: SMEAR

65. Recital pieces: SOLOs

Down:

1. Gambler's concern: ODDS

2. "Eat up every moment" breakfast chain: IHOP

3. Geological Hawaiian souvenir: LAVA ROCK
+
4. Musical Hawaiian souvenir: UKE

5. Mardi Gras events: PARADES

6. "Around the World ... " hero Phileas: FOGG

7. "Well, howdy": "OH, HI"

8. Mortgage figure: RATE

9. Sch. with a Providence campus: URI. (University of Rhode Island, again) Motto: Think Big. We Do.

10. Sea cow: MANATEE. Marine mammal.



11. Bits of sand: GRAINS. “Like sands through the hourglass...."

12. Losing lawyer's recourse: APPEAL

13. Like Limburger cheese: SMELLY

18. Composer Stravinsky: IGOR, conducting a snippet of "The Firebird".



23. Flag maker Betsy: ROSS

25. A Gabor sister: EVA. Zsa Zsa died Sunday just shy of 100 years old ~ TMZ

26. Gift for the poor: ALMS

27. Web address part: DOT. A tittle, if you will.

28. Cos. with Xings: RRs. Cos. means companies? Wiki says yes.

29. Wipe out: ERASE

30. Tribal leader: CHIEF

31. Rapper West: KANYE. Kanye Omari West

35. Prized by collectors: RARE

36. Platypus feature: DUCKBILL. If you thought the manatee looked odd...



38. Place to retire: BED

39. Baking spot: OVEN

40. Keeps from being blue?: CENSORS. Cute clue.

41. Humbles: DEMEANS

42. Brian of ambient music: ENO

43. Characteristic: ASPECT

44. Affect: BEAR ON

45. Prepare, as new students: ORIENT

46. Like too-quick decisions: RASH

50. Surrender: CEDE

51. Neighborhood: AREA

52. KGB country: USSR

54. Clued in about: ON TO

55. Grows older: AGES

58. Vigor's partner: VIM. Vim and vigor, crudely known as p*ss and vinegar.

59. Outback hopper, for short: ROO. If you watched the video, you know they are related to the platypuses.


Argyle

47 comments:

OwenKL said...

{B, A-, B+, A, C-.}

Old age is filled with more PAINS --
Joints hurt every time that it RAINS.
What was firm turns to jelly,
We become strangely SMELLY,
And hair migrates from our brains to our drains!

Said the platypus to the kangaroo
"My DUCK BILL has scared an emu
It thought I was a bird."
Said the ROO, "That's absurd
You're clearly posing for a selfie or two!"

A RECKLESSLY conjuring youth
Tried to make a deal with Old Deuce
His soul he would CEDE
For a RARE kind of weed,
And exclusive rights to its use!

An ASPECT of many a FORUM
Is trolls with no sense of decorum!
Their posts run AMOK
With CENSORIOUS stuff!
Like a RASH, everyone should deplore 'em!

At the SPA when someone had a SMELLY wind pass,
There's a special lotion to SMEAR on their ass.
They'd first DAB away,
The light it flambe!
(Reserved for execs with OIL and GAS!)

RetFizz said...

Aha! I get to post before fermatprime! So I repeat my question from part of my Sunday Post:

Fermatprime, I think I know where you taught math, and I wonder if you knew my old Caltech math TA, the late Don Potts. We all had to run track, and Don also “tutored” me in running the 440 and managed to get my time down to just a little over… 60 seconds, huffing and puffing all the way.

OwenKL: I thought your first limerick for the last line of your last limerick was the closest to my own experience. A.
For the last line of your last limerick, did you mean to say "Then light it flambé"? A-.

Gotta post now before FP does!

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks to Jacob and Santa!

RetFizz: I did, indeed!

No problems with puzzle.

Wind at night is not pleasant. Have pen beam ceiling. Heard a few booms so far tonight.

Have a great day!

RetFizz said...

Now for the puzzle. Of course, as usual, I missed the theme in spite of getting the reveal.

’Tis said that ancient sailors sometimes mistook manatees for mermaids because of their long, flat tail. I guess that's what happened to men in years-long sea voyages. seeing what they want to see. There are other mermaid traits that I failed to see in Argyle’s clip.

I had trouble with the NW corner because I had the Bangladesh capital as DACCA, which really messed me up, then tried DAKKA, and finally had to look it up and the correct spelling straightened everything out.

And as far as RsPMs are concerned, I care not for them. I have never seen any anything other than RPM.

Argyle chose one of the most beautiful parts of the Firebird, the Berceuse, which I have always loved. Igor was not the best conductor of the Firebird, nor of any of his music for that matter.

Many years ago my late life and I attended a play in a small theater somewhere in Hollywood, and Zsa Zsa was sitting right in front of us. As was always her wont, my DLW struck up a conversation with her. She was very charming and vivacious, just like her persona that we’ve seen on TV shows and movies.

Many thanks to Jacob for a nice puzzle with fun clues, and to Argyle for his writeup, complete with splendid pix and videos.

Thanks for your reply, fermatprime; I’m just sorry that I never got together with Don while he was still with us.

RetFizz said...

Er, the conversation was during intermission, not the play.

RetFizz said...

Me again - In my first post, my OwenKL comment should read:

"OwenKL: I thought your first limerick was the closest to my own experience. A.
For the last line of your last limerick, did you mean to say "Then light it flambé"? A-."

Blame the wandering cursor on my laptop.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Argyle, I looked OVER the grid, and didn't see anything else involved in the theme -- OVER is SHARED by two words OVER and OVER. Seemed pretty quick and easy, but then it is Tuesday... Thanx, Jacob.

Fermat, what is a "pen beam ceiling?"

Still cold here. Daily walks are in abeyance for the duration. MoW later today, as usual. Tomorrow should be warmer, though darker (winter solstice).

unclefred said...

OK, mostly flowed right along but slowed way down in SW. OILUP was a late fill, too. Favorite clue: Keeps from being blue? CENSORS took a while to occur to me. Good CW, thanx, JS! Nice write-up, thanx Argyle! Especially liked the platypus video. Very interesting! Had to take my car to the shop this morning, walked home. So a little late to the CW. Thanx for the limericks, Owen, too lazy to rate them this morning though. I wanna catch a few more ZZZs.

CrossEyedDave said...

I'll just say it was a fun puzzle,

because I wouldn't want to say too much...

Tinbeni said...

Argyle: Wonderful write-up. Especially enjoyed the MANATEE clip. (Its a Floridian thing!)

Jacob: Thank You for a FUN Tuesday puzzle. Nice OVER-SHARING theme.

Fave today, after the V-8 Can Smack, was the clue/answer for CENSORS. Clever!

When I think of the movie Cape Fear I prefer the one with Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck.

Cheers!

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Nice, polite puzzle today. My ego needed that after yesterday's Monday struggle. I knew how to pronounce DHAKA, but didn't know how to spell it. Perps to the rescue - I knew the downs except for LAVA ROCKS. I didn't know RHAMES or OCASEY, but both seem worth knowing. I regret to admit that I knew KANYE West's name.

When I lived in Dallas, a popular sport was telling jokes with an AGGIE as the butt. Even the country music radio DJs got into it. But the only AGGIEs I remember meeting were really smart. (I tell "dumb blond" jokes to my naturally fair-haired PhD-in-chemistry sister, who STILL doesn't like them, and who is one of the smartest people I've ever met.)

Thanks to Jacob for a fun romp, and to Argyle for workmanlike narrative.

Anonymous said...

Unfair crossing of proper names Rhames and Kanye. At least for those of us who can't spell the proper names of people we don't pay much attention to and seldom remember.

Anonymous said...

The past tense of "dive" is DIVED, not DOVE. DOVE is a bird.

billocohoes said...

Anon @ 7:20
DOVE as a past tense for dive been in use for two hundred years, and is far more common in American and Canadian English than "dived."
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/dived-or-dove-which-is-correct

desper-otto said...

Tinbeni, don't know if you regularly solve the NYT, but I would pass today.

Tinbeni said...

desper-otto

On-the-Rocks is a lousy theme answer. JMHO ... LOL

thehondohurricane said...


This could have resulted in a DNF, a FIW or a tada. I had absolutely no idea who actor Ving is or the first name of rapper West. None whatsoever. I was thinking that a Y or an A was the the letter. I cannot even give alogical reason why I went with the A, but I did. Hence, a tada.[. Their names will certainly be forgotten by lunchtime.

The rest of the puzzle filled in pretty easily, but I thought there was enough crunch to make it an enjoyable challenge.





desper-otto said...

Hondo, now you know how I feel when sports names show up in the daily cw. "Their names will certainly be forgotten by lunchtime."

Madame Defarge said...

Hello,

Thanks, Jacob, this was a fun solve today. I didn't see the theme, but was able to suss the theme clues.

Nicely done, once again, Santa. Like the Firebird link. Saw Stravinsky at Orchestra Hall in Chicago--I think it was 1964. I was impressed.

As the Chapter in Tale of Two Cities: Still Knitting. Ha! I will be done this afternoon, and then I can finally get back to knitting for my chilly old self. A heat wave today, though, in the upper 20's. ;) Stay cozy.

MJ said...

Good day to all!

I found today's puzzle easier than yesterday's. Favorite clue/answer, as others have said, was "Keeps from being blue?" for CENSOR. As for the theme, I knew something was "up" when I kept seeing OVER, but needed the reveal to see that OVE R was repeatedly shared.

Thanks for the expo, Argyle. Cool manatee video.

Enjoy the day!

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Zoomed right through. Another clever theme execution.

Morning Argyle, enjoyed the platypus video! She seems to be one intelligent young woman.

Lucina from last night - I'm surprised too! Crouching Tiger was released in 2000. Seems more recent...

Anonymous T said...

Hi all!

Had a meeting w/ buddies in Maadi so I'm up early. I say 'had' - after 2 hrs of sleep I scrambled to get on the meeting only to find it canceled. I'm going to blame lack of sleep to my slow (and error prone) solve.

Thanks Jacob for an OVER-easy puzzle and Thx to Argyle for the expo/DUCKBILL'd Platypus / ROO link video. Here's another staring Perry

WOs: I had tAd for 36a giving me Den for 38d; fortunately I REFERENCED 43a's tense and fixed it. I had 54d as iN-on until NOLTE showed. I read 57a's clue @56a and scribed TMI - D'Oh! Is that too much info? No? More: I tried to spell CHIEFs like the 'Great Googley Moogley' guy.
ESPs: OHAKA, OHARA, RHAMES.

Fav: I'll go w/ 40d's c/a for now [subject to change when I look this OVER later]

{A-,B,A,A+,B}

Jinx - AGGIEs are just as good as [insert stereotype here] substitutes :-)

Cheers, -T

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

A little chewy, but got it done w/o lookups. Needed perps to help spell DHAKA. The reveal @ 57a helped fill in ABOVE REFERENCED.

Hava a great day.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Me, too Argyle as I apparently OVERthought the OVER theme (Invoke Occums’s Razor?).
-This OILED UP celebrity caught much grief in this venue
-I violated my Facebook rule of no politics in a FORUM last week and immediately regretted it. No one listens and just waits their turn to type. Never again, Sean O’Casey’s quote not withstanding.
-No matter how many PAINS I took, a new lesson had bugs in it, but was 100% better the next time!
-Do you recognize this crossword regular in her trademark SMEARED makeup?
-A DUCKBILLED platypus has been described as having been put together by a committee
-Can you tell me exactly what prohibitions CENSORS have these days?

TTP said...


OH HI there ! Good morning !

ATONAL - The way I sing ! Some of my SOLOS would do Florence Foster Jenkins proud.
Typed OVER ConSOle at Keep from being blue. The clue was plural. Keeps from... Oh, that blue. CENSORS.
My 14 year old great-grandniece has her heart set on going to A&M and being and AGGIE.
Loved Maureen OHARA's character portrayal in The Quiet Man.
KANYE will get votes in 2024.
My FIL liked Limburger cheese. I couldn't get past the SMELL.

Thank you Jacob and Argyle.

oc4beach said...


Anon @ 7:20

From Dictionary.com

Both dived and dove are standard as the past tense of dive. Dived, historically the older form, is somewhat more common in edited writing, but dove occurs there so frequently that it also must be considered standard: The rescuer dove into 20 feet of icy water.

Anonymous T said...

TTP - bite your tongue! But you're probably right re: KANYE :-(
HG - CBS's CENSORS curb'd Colbert... for a bit. C, -T

Wilbur Charles said...

I'm in early today. Taking a rare sick day. I echo the kudos for this site except the BOORS are best ignored. Ya, I know, BOORS was yesterday or some other day.

This old brain is in forever now time.

Due Thompson didn't lie, she prevaricated per last night's very late post.

I found this XW both easy and tricky. Instead of sports we had DHAKA and RHAMES. KANYE (West) has managed to become ubiquitous much like everything Kardashian.

Can't find a sports reference even embedded so I'll go with AGGIE as in Johnny Manziel, the unfortunate Heisman winner who needs prayer more than acclaim.

Good morning,

Wilbur

Wilbur Charles said...

Oh ya. Thanks to Jacob, Argyle and Owen, the latter with the wild imagination who couldn't post less than a B+ if he was as sick as I am

WC

Chairman Moe said...

"Puzzling thoughts":

A bit crunchy for Tuesday but managed to solve the puzzle with no cheats, but a lot of perps. Theme was ok but I enjoyed the Argyle recap better. Great job, Santa! ��
Especially enjoyed the IGOR Stravinsky clip; the Berceuse is one of my favorite pieces as I have a fondness for bassoons and bassoonists. My daughter plays, and has performed that piece dozens of times. While I couldn't find a clip of her playing it, here is a nocturne-danse from Bozza played by Moe's Daughter Amy
She is playing for a major ballet orchestra this Christmas season; Moe and Ms. Moe will be spending the holidays with her, and will get to see the Nutcracker later this week

Lucina said...

Nice puzzle, thank you, Jacob Stulberg! It was a quick solve, too. DHAKA seemed elusive but perps helped all the way. I loved Maureen O'HARA and her renowned red hair.

No problem with Sean O'CASEY. I also liked the clue for CENSORS, clever. DEUCE crossing ACE was fun.

Ving RHAMES, unforgettable!

Thank you, Argyle, for a thorough analysis. I'm glad to know what A&M means and I recall studying about land grant colleges that were founded to study agriculture. Very nice pics, too.

Have a splendid day, everyone! I had a great night of sleep, finally.

Dudley said...

About Texas Aggies: most of my aunts & uncles went to UT Austin, so they were all on the transmitting end of Aggie jokes. When I was young, being a New Englander, I had no context for understanding Aggie-related humor; then, there appeared mysteriously a UT Austin coffee table book at our house. I read up on all that West Texas rivalry stuff and concluded it was all pretty childish. I noticed that picking on Aggies was largely the same as picking on Poles, a common sport around here at the time, what with all the undereducated Polish farm families living hereabouts. Over time that habit has died out.

OwenKL said...

Ret: nice catch of my typo! (Although quibble, it was the penultimate line, not the final one.) Spell checks don't do much good when the misspelt word is the correct spelling for a different ward, as several poems attest.

New Mexico State U. (formerly New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts) students are also Aggies, as are (according to Wiki) 18 other schools across the US, Canada, and Philippines!

The dove dived down in the driving RAIN
But the sleet DROVE the dove to distraction with PAIN!
Still dive he must,
So he DOVE with lust
For his dole when a dove divvied out the GRAIN!

thehondohurricane said...


D O.... We ought to team up. You can take care of the RAP artists, current movie stars Social media expressions and I'll take care of the sports, 50's/'60'scelebrities & whatever pops up from that era. We could probably cut our completion times in half.

.................................

I worked for a Aero Space manufacturer who was a supplier to GD in Fort Worth. I visited there often and got to see the Aggie/ UT rivalry up close. At first I thought they were joking with each other, but they sure "weren't". Aggie alum was heavy in GD and new hires who were UT alum were not welcomed with open arms.

CrossEyedDave said...

HG's censor comment made internet searching irresistible,
I was going to post a link of a list of TV censored words,
but that would be oversharing...
(besides, you've heard them all already...)

Or have you?

Two in particular were totally alien to me, so I had to look them up...

One was Wigger, (look it up if you want, just remember what list it came from...)
& the other was reach around?
What could possibly be so wrong about two such innocent words?

P.S. Anon-T hilarious frog link!

Irish Miss said...

Hi Everyone:

Late to the dance due to numerous distractions and important duties such as signing my Will, Health Proxy, and Power of Attorney. My paralegal niece and her attorney-boss were kind enough to come right to my house for these signings and a neighbor was kind enough to be a witness. (Am I spoiled, or what?) Anyway, it's a relief to finalize these documents which I had neglected doing for far too long.

There was a bit of a crunch today but nothing that perps couldn't handle. I had three before deuce, had to wait on Oil Up but, unfortunately, I know Kanye all too well. I, too, prefer the Gregory Peck/Robert Mitchum version of "Cape Fear." Maureen O'Hara was a favorite, also.

Thanks, JS, for a Tuesday treat and thanks, Santa, for the neato expo.!

Thanks to everyone from yesterday for the comments regarding my garage door problem. My brother couldn't get here today but suggested I clean the sensor lights and that seemed to do the trick, at least so far. If it acts up again, I'll have someone check it out further.

Have a great day.

Jayce said...

I liked this puzzle. After getting DOVE RIGHT IN and DROVE RECKLESSLY I expected the theme was anagrams of DROVE and DOVER, but I couldn't think of any. I was happy with just OVER. I knew Ving RHAMES, who I think is a good actor, and KANYE West, who I think is a very weird person. Other names I knew were ARIEL, O'HARA, ROSS, EVA, IGOR, ENO, NOLTE, and FOGG. A couple of perps got me O'CASEY. A couple of perps to get DHAKA, too.
I wonder if Claude Rains gets PAINS when it RAINS.
Argyle, thanks again for a terrific writeup.
I too prefer the movie Cape Fear with Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck. Mitchum was so frightening! Great acting job.
Best wishes to you all.

CrossEyedDave said...

Another case of overlinking (Um, Er, oversharing)

StarTrek Style...

Yellowrocks said...

I found yesterday's puzzle EZ PZ, not so this one. Murphy's Law says "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong." That's the story of my day today. I did fill the puzzle successfully w/o cheating, but it took way too long. I saw OVER in the theme answers right away, but that seems insignificant. Some clever puns. More clever expo.
I could not sit through Pulp Fiction. I hated it and never tried it again. I liked Cape Fear, especially the older version. Can you think of any remake that improved the original? Can you think of any movie that improved a novel. My only suggestion is French Lieutenant's Woman. The novel lacked the clarity of the movie. 99% of the time I prefer the novels.
Anon @ 7:20, I would like you to meet Mr. Google.
Owen, IMO "the dove dived" and Forum are the best, but all A'S or A-'s. Tour de Force.

desper-otto said...

Hilarious parody, CED. Loved it.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Close enough. I left two unfilled because - uh, what the hey!
Sometimes we just don't feel obsessive about a pzl, willing to let it slide because we've already achieved enough mental points for the day. In this case, I didn't fill the "B" in ABOVE REFERENCED, nor the "H" in IHOP.
I know I could've. Like Jayce, I was "happy"--already.
Thank you, Mr. Stulberg.

CanadianEh! said...

Wow, there are 40 people here already. I found this CW to be quite straight-forward. But I did go back and try to find where OVER was above SHARING. Now I see that OVER is shared between the words! Very clever. Thanks Jacob and Argyle.

As I filled in EVA, I thought of the ODDS that a puzzle with this answer would be published just after her sister's death.

Chairman Moe, the video of your daughter playing came up as "not available" to me. Is this just a Canadian site restriction? Could the others see the link?

Irish Miss, you have given your family an early Christmas gift by finalizing all your affairs. Most people don't like to think about it, but leaving it undone creates a mess to be cleaned up after you are gone.

Have a great "rest of the day"!

MJ said...

Chairman Moe-Your daughter is an amazingly talented bassoonist. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the piece you linked, as well as some of the other selections that she has posted on youtube. Brava, Amy!

Lucina said...

ChairmanMoe:
Thank you for sharing your daughter's performance with us! You can be justifiably proud of her talent. It was lovely listening.

Chairman Moe said...

Canadian Eh! @ 3:45 --> not sure if it's a Canadian site restriction or not. But I originally posted it from my iPhone - maybe I can send a link from my PC and see if this works better . . . Moe's Daughter Bassoon Music

The link above is actually from the same CD; it is of a trio where she plays the bassoon and her colleagues at the university where she teaches were playing the clarinet and oboe, respectively. Then there is a duettino for 2 bassoons that follows. I suppose if you leave it on auto-play it will scroll through the entire CD. Her first published CD, BTW . . .

MJ and Lucina - thanks; yes Dad is very proud of her talent. Glad you enjoyed it!

CanadianEh! said...

Chairman Moe, I get a "video blocked in country" so it must be a Canadian restriction. I will have to take MJ and Lucina's word for how enjoyable it is. You are allowed to be a proud papa!

Anonymous T said...

For those who care...
I just heard on the radio that Jon Anderson & co. is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of '17. Yes!, it's roundabout time that all good people see fit to honor the band.

CED - thanks for the Trek reciprocity... LOL! Cheers, -T